74 THK FARM, 



and hauling out manure, trash and produce. If this bo not feasible, on ac- 

 count of the small size of the garden, a can with a flat spout, or even large 

 buckets to which a flat pouring place is added, will be speedy and efficient. 



Gardeners well know the value of manure, and especially of liquid ma- 

 nure. They spare no pains or price to get. all they can, and often apply from 

 20 to 40 loads of compost or decomposed manure per acre, annually. It is 

 what makes or mars the profit in gardening. The result of the gardener's 

 experience may bo easily learned by any faiiner Avho reads, if indeed, it be 

 not so devoted to impractical matter that the proper talent in this direction 

 is not retained. It is just this that makes the difference in the value of any 

 technical journal. If it spread over too much ground, it is efficient in no- 

 thing. Just so with the individual. If he engage in thi-ee or four separate 

 callings, some of them must suffer. The field of agriculture is broad 

 enough, and in this field there is none more important than the proper 

 saving and apphcation of manure, and especially so in the vegetable gar- 

 den which no farmer, however few his acres, can afford to be without, es- 

 pecially if he have due regard for the health of his family. 



Application of Fertilizers. — Recent experiments have demonstrated 

 ■ that where the application of superphosphates to the soil has produced no 

 effect, the cause was to be attributed to a sufficiency of those salts already 

 existing therein. Where 2 cwts. soil contain less than 3 1-2 ounces of phos- 

 phoric acid, the superphosphate will prove beneficial. When it contains 5 

 ounces of phosphoric acid, the addition of the salt will turn out to be useless. 

 It follows from this that, contrary to the received opinion, it is not necessary 

 to apply nitrates mixed with the phosphates, when the latter are present in 

 the soil. M. Pagnoul continues his interesting experiments as to the solu- 

 bility of phosphates by diverse agents. He conclusively proves that stable, 

 indeed, we may add barn-yard manure, will dissolve natural phosphates in 

 the powdered state, and thus economize the expensive superphosphates. 



A Patent Fertilizer Wliicli Anybody May Use. — This invention re- 

 lates to a combination of chemicals to be iised in connection with dry peat, 

 or muck and unleached ashes, or with any refuse matter having fertilizing 

 pi'operties, to form a fertilizing compound; and it consists in combining dis- 

 solved bone, gi'ound plaster, nitrate of soda, sulphate of soda and sulphate 

 of ammonia, in proportion substantially as follows: 



Dissolved bone, three biishels; ground plaster, three bushels; nitrate of 

 soda, forty pounds; sulphate of soda, forty pounds; and sulphate of am- 

 monia, tlm-ty-three pounds. This mixture is incoqoorated with, say, twenty 

 bushels of Avj peat or muck, and three bushels of unleached ashes. 



The manner of preparing a fertilizing compound from the above ingredi- 

 ents is as follows: The peat or muck and ashes, if such matter bo used as 

 the base of the mixture, are thoroughly mixed with the dissolved bone, and 

 the nitrate of soda, sulphate of soda, and sulphate of ammonia, after being 

 dissolved in water, added thereto. The ingredients are next incorporated 

 with the gi-ound plaster, after which the compound is allowed to stand for, 

 say, thirty or forty days, when it becomes ready for use. 



Tlie "Worlt of Potasli. — Potash is a fertilizing element whose restora- 

 tion to the soil is indispensable, as it is carried oft' by crops in considerable 

 proportions. This restitution becomes the more imperative when plants of 

 the leguminous family, such as clover, disappear, to be replaced by mass. 

 Unwashed wood ashes, containing six to eight per cent, of potash, and three 



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